


Paladins of Red and Blue

by IceFireWolfDragon



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Blood, Confessions, Fighting, Fluff, M/M, Violence, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-10 20:49:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12307491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceFireWolfDragon/pseuds/IceFireWolfDragon
Summary: The fighting is fierce between Voltron and the Galra. With the Paladins working apart with Keith and Lance acting as the distraction, things get serious and emotions take hold as Keith is in a desperate position with little that Lance can do.





	1. Red Paladin

Keith and Lance were charging away from the Galra base and back to their lions. They had acted as the distraction for this mission and now were beating a hasty retreat as per Shiro’s orders. Their retreat would have been faster if they didn’t have to keep stopping in order to fight of the Galra guards that were following them. Keith would charge though the advancing army; chopping, slicing and stabbing as he went whilst Lance stood further back and let every single one of his aims hit their mark and take down one of the enemy. Run. Stop. Fight. Repeat. 

Finally, their lions were in sight. They sprinted faster only to see a group of Galra standing behind their lions and found themselves blocked by more Galra coming at them from behind. Quickly, the two paladins turned so they stood back to back; Lance facing the direction of their retreat and Keith facing the other. The battle quickly became heated and the two paladins ended up being separated. 

Shouts over the team radio became louder as the battlefield did. The three other paladins were having their own problems which left Lance and Keith on their own. The red paladin was cutting his way through the sea of Galra. For every soldier that fell it felt like another two was taking their place. It was getting tiresome. “Lance! On my signal, we’ll make a break for the lions!”  
“Ready when you are Keith.”  
“Now!” Keith moved swiftly towards his lion and he saw a flash of blue doing the same.

As they neared the lions, the two paladins had found each other again. Keith seemed to be more worse for wear than Lance did, but then again, the blue paladin didn’t have to deal with close combat. The red paladin fell behind slightly as he glanced behind them. There was a Galra stood behind them. His rifle raised and aimed at Lance. There was no time to warn Lance, who had already reached his lion. He hoped that they could both reached the lion before the Galra shot but that wasn’t going to happen. As soon as Keith saw its finger twitch on the trigger he dived in the way. Despite trying to put his shield up, the laser hit him before he could and he crashed to the ground. The shot had torn through the black suit of his paladin armour. Thick red blood flowed from the wound. He watched as the Galra advanced towards him, gun bearing down at him. This was it. Keith wanted to face it bravely but he couldn’t. He closed his eyes and braced himself for the inevitable.

He heard a shot was fired but felt nothing. He opened his eyes to find the Galra on the ground with a hole in its chest. Kieht let out a breath that he didn’t know that he had been holding. His head was lifted up and placed onto something. A clatter was heard by his head and he watched as a shield was put up in front of him. Looking up, Keith saw Lance, minus his helmet, holding his activated shield up, protecting the two of them. A searing pain hit the wound. “It’s okay Keith. I’m just trying to put pressure on the wound to help stop the bleeding.” Keith knew it was helpless. No matter how hard Lance tried, nothing was going to stop it. “Go Lance. Run,” Keith choked out.  
“I’m not leaving you mullet! You’re going to be okay.” Lance’s words may have been optimistic but his tone of voice truly wasn’t. Keith was struggling hard to keep hold on consciousness. He barely noticed how their lions had moved of their own accord to form a barrier around the two paladins or how the Cuban had dropped his shield in favour of cradling Keith’s head. The blue paladin removed the others helmet and looked at him. “I don’t want to move you in case it gets worse so I need you to hang on until the others get here. Okay?” Keith shook his head. He couldn’t promise that, not as it got harder to breath or as he felt his heartbeat growing weaker.

Keith tried to stay awake. He really did but after only a few minutes, he was really struggling. Lance had tried to calm him down but it hadn’t worked very well. The red paladin was losing his fight with consciousness. His eyes felt heavy and his breathing more laboured. He was running out of time. There was a lot left he wanted to say... to each of the paladins, along with Allura and Coran but Lance was the only one here. At least one of them would be able to hear what he wanted to say. “Lance,” he said quietly. “I need to tell you something.”  
“No. No no no no no no Keith. No last words. No. You’re going to be fine.”  
“I need to... please.”  
“Okay Keith.”  
“I...” Keith paused as he took several deep breaths. “I... l-love... you... Lance.” Every word was punctuated by Keith practically gasping for air and with the final word, the red paladin’s eyes closed and his head lolled to one side.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Lance stared in disbelief as Keith fell unconscious in his arms. He began to carefully shake the other in an attempt to rouse him. “Keith? Keith!? KEITH!” He grew more desperate. “Keith! Wake up... please. You can’t do this to me!” The blue paladin began to despair. No matter what he tried, Keith stayed the way he was. Lance tried to fight them but eventually tear after tear streamed down his face. He rested his forehead against the others. “I’m so sorry Keith. I’m so sorry.” Lance was so caught up in his grief that he didn’t notice the rest of Voltron arrive... but none of that mattered anyway... when there was little hope left for their red paladin, the samurai of Voltron, for the boy who had just confessed to him which he hadn’t been able to reciprocate.


	2. Waiting

The three paladins arrived to find Lance crying over Keith. Shiro carefully knelt down next to him and placed a hand on the blue paladins. “Lance, what happened?”  
“He got shot!” cried Lance. “He tried to save me and he got shot... I’m so sorry Keith...” He clung tight to Keith as if he feared that he might disappear completely. “Lance... I need to look at him. Can you let go of him and out him down for me?”  
“No! I can’t!”   
“Lance. I really need to. For Keith’s sake.”  
“NO!” Shiro sighed and nodded to the two paladins behind them. He didn’t want to have to do this but he had no choice. Pidge and Hunk held Lance back as the elder pulled the red paladin from his grip. “KEITH!” Lance screamed, shouted and cursed but the two paladins pulled him back and kept a firm grip on him. He watched as Shiro pressed his ear to Keith’s chest before he sat straight up and began chest compressions. The black paladin blinked in order to stop the tears from showing. He couldn’t show any weakness to the others... not now. He kept placing his ear back on the youngster’s chest but kept sitting up and pressing down harder on the boy’s chest. Shiro flinched as he felt some ribs crack beneath his fingers. Eventually, he after listening for a final time, he sighed and sat up. “Shiro... is everything okay?” Pidge asked. The oldest paladin pulled Keith towards him and stood up. “N-no. I’m going to take him straight back to the castle. There’s a healing pod ready... if he lasts that long. His breathing is weak and his heart... well... let’s just say it is barely keep him alive now. Follow me as soon as you can.” He ran to the black lion, carrying Keith who hung limply in his arms.

It took a long time for Pidge and Hunk to convince Lance to get back into his lion and even longer for him to actually take off. Lance had turned his radio off and left Blue in auto-pilot. He had curled up on the pilot’s chair and cried is heart out in loud, long sobs. I should have done something to help, he thought. Why am I so useless? Keith’s going to die because of me. Blue tried to comfort her paladin but to little avail. He kept her shut out so she just kept flying. Lance felt a tidal wave a guilt for what happened. It should have been me. It should have been me. He kept his small mantra running through his head until he reached the castle.

As soon as the blue lion had landed in her hangar, Lance climbed out and ran straight towards the medical bay. Everyone else was already gathered there. Pidge, Hunk and Coran all stood near the healing pod. The youngest paladin was being comforted by the other two but they didn’t look much better. Shiro stood to one side with Allura. He held a cloth to his armour and was wiping away Keith’s blood which has marked his armour from carrying in him. After seeing everyone else, Lance slowly made his way over to the pod. There was Keith. He looked so much paler than usual and the white suit was stained red at his side. It was hard seeing the red paladin like this, looking so weak and helpless. It wasn’t right. He placed his hand against the pod. “How is he?” Lance looked over the princess and the black paladin.  
“We’re not sure. He may come around... however, there is about an equal chance that he will not make it.”  
“How long...”  
“He may be gone by the time we have breakfast tomorrow but like I said before he may still be here. There is no way we can be certain. For now, we should just try to do our best to carry on as normal. I know it may be difficult but with so much uncertainty it’s all we can do.”  
“Okay everyone,” said Shiro. “Let’s get changed and then have dinner. We can talk more about what is happening then.”

Lance showered quickly and didn’t bother with his usual skin care routine. After he slipped on his normal clothes, he grabbed his blanket and pillows and took them along with him to the medical bay. He dropped them down in front of Keith’s pod. No matter how long Keith had to stay in the pods, for one reason or another that he didn’t even want to think about, he was determined to stay with the red paladin. 

A few minutes later, Coran appeared. “Lance? Are you going to come to dinner?”  
“No Coran. I’d rather stay with Keith.” The Altean sighed.  
“I’ll bring you something over.” He hastily left, leaving Lance alone with the red paladin once again. However, it was not for long. He brought two bowls of food goo and seated himself next to the young paladin. “Here you go. Eat up.”  
“Thanks Coran.” Slowly, the two ate their dinner in silence and after they were finished, Coran collected the bowls and took them back into the kitchen before coming back to run some checks on the healing pod. In all this time, Lance hadn’t moved. He just sat in quiet vigil in front of the pod. He even refused to leave when Coran suggested that he went to bed.

During the hours in which the castle lights were dimmed to suggest some sort of time scale, Lance fought to stay awake for fear of anything happening to Keith should he fall asleep. In an attempt to stay awake, he began telling the other about his home, family and his life before the garrison. Unfortunately, this didn’t help him much as he soon felt tired again. “I’m sorry Keith but I can’t stay awake any longer. I know you can’t hear me but promise me you’ll be here when I wake up. I can’t lose you. You’re a fighter Keith so fight. I’ll see you in the morning. Goodnight Keith.” He pulled the blanket over him and settled down. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before but... I love you too Keith.” And with that, Lance then finally fell asleep.


End file.
